Many dispensing containers rely for the dispensing of the liquid contained therein, on a dispensing tube and a gas connection. The dispensing tube permits the liquid contained in the container to flow out thereof, driven by a pressure difference between the interior and the exterior of the container. Said pressure difference may be created by gravity if the closure is located below the liquid level, by an overpressure inside the container, or by vacuum at the outlet of the dispensing tube. The gas connection may serve either to inject pressurized gas into the container to drive the dispensing of liquid, or to allow air into the container to fill the volume of dispensed liquid such as to maintain the pressure relatively constant in the container. The container may comprise a single wall (although the wall can be a laminate) or may comprise several detachable layers, such as in bag-in-containers and bladder-in-containers. Bag-in-containers, also referred to as bag-in-bottles or bag-in-boxes depending on the geometry of the outer vessel, all terms considered herein as being comprised within the meaning of the term bag-in-container, are a family of liquid dispensing packaging consisting of an outer container comprising an opening to the atmosphere—the mouth—and which contains a collapsible inner bag joined to said container and opening to the atmosphere at the region of said mouth. The liquid is contained in the inner bag. The system must comprise at least one vent fluidly connecting the atmosphere to the region between the inner bag and the outer container in order to control the pressure in said region to squeeze the inner bag and thus dispense the liquid contained therein (cf. e.g., WO2008/129018 and GB8925324). Alternatively, in bladder-in-containers, the liquid is contained in the outer container and the inner bag, generally called a bladder, is either inflated to drive the flow of liquid out of the container, or simply put in fluid connection with atmospheric, in order to balance the pressure inside the container (cf. WO9015774, EP1647499, WO2010055057, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,758, GB9504284, FR2602222, GB8806378). The advantage of bag-in-containers and bladder-in-containers over single wall containers is that the liquid is never in contact with an external gas. The present invention applies to any type of such containers.
The dispensing tube and gas connections often communicate with the interior of the container through the closure thereof, which is therefore provided with at least two openings. Unless the two openings are concentric, the closure is not axisymmetrical. This is one example among others where the position of at least one aperture of the closure is offset with respect to the centroid of the base plane of the closure, wherein the centroid of a geometrical shape corresponds to the centre of gravity of said shape having a uniform density and thickness (cf. e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centroid).
Some dispensing containers are stand alone, and can be used as such. In some cases, however, the container must be mounted on a dispensing appliance to function properly. The appliance comprises a first portion for holding the container in dispensing position, and a second portion provided with means for creating a fluid communication between the interior of the container and a dispensing tube and a gas connection through the closure of the container. The container may be positioned with the closure located below the level of liquid to drive the flow out of the container by way of gravity, as is the case in many soap dispensers. Soap dispensers, however, rarely require a closure with two openings. Examples of such soap dispensers can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,309 and WO200761967.
US2009/0242562 discloses a closure comprising a seal indicator providing indication when seal has been achieved between the closure and a container upon relative rotational movement over mating threads, GB1438228. This type of closure is not meant to be used with pressurized containers. GB1438228 discloses a closure unit comprising an overcap with a peripheral skirt and two sealing plugs comprising bores with puncturable membranes, the plugs being integrally moulded to each other and to a washer, thereby forming a gasket which becomes compressed against the lip of a pressurized beer barrel when the skirt is crimped under the lip. In particular, two tongues are crimped with a tool under the lip of the container. Neither the closure, nor the container it is coupled to have any orientation requirement to function properly, as the dispensing does not require to couple the container with closure to a dispensing appliance.
An example of an assembly of a container and a dispensing appliance is given in WO90/15774, wherein the container is a bladder-in-container. In WO90/15774, a dispending end section of the housing is provided with a bladder and a dispensing stem, running through a threaded opening in said end suitable for screwing the container's mouth into position. The bladder and dispensing stem provided in the dispensing end of the appliance are therefore first introduced and fixed into the container, and thereafter the dispensing end and container are positioned in the housing of the appliance. A similar system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,787 with a bag-in-container, wherein a dispensing end of the appliance comprises a dispensing stem to be introduced into the bag containing the liquid. Applying a dispensing end of a dispensing appliance with a stem into a container is quite cumbersome and has the great drawback that the container must be opened before mounting on the appliance. This contact of the liquid with ambient may be critical for the quality of some liquids.
For comfort of use, it is preferred that the container may be mounted onto the dispensing appliance in as few moves as possible, and for sensitive liquids, avoiding any contact between the liquid contained in the container with ambient. The latter can be achieved by providing the dispensing tube and gas connection with puncturing means suitable for breaking open a sealed opening. To reduce the number of moves required to mount the container onto the dispensing appliance, one could imagine that the container may be mounted onto the holding portion of an appliance and the dispensing end thereof simply applied on against the closure, with the aim of bringing the interior of the container in fluid communication with a dispensing tube and a gas connection. Now in case the closure is not axisymmetrical because of the presence of at least one offset opening, as is the case with at least two, non concentric openings, the angular position of the container in its axial direction becomes critical, because the dispensing tube and gas connection must be brought in perfect match with the position of the corresponding openings. This is particularly critical when puncturing means are used as forcing the puncturing means against a closure having a wrong angular orientation could damage either the closure or the puncturing means. The user must therefore look carefully that the angular orientation of the container in the holding portion of the appliance is correct before closing the dispensing end of the appliance onto the closure, which is probably more uncomfortable than the solutions proposed in WO90/15774 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,787 discussed above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an assembly considerably simplifying the mounting of a container onto a dispensing appliance comprising at least one duct to be connected in as few moves as possible to an opening provided on the base of a closure, when said opening is offset with respect of the centroid of said closure's base. It is also an object of the present invention to provide such system wherein said mounting does not necessitate contacting the liquid contained in the container with ambient. These and other objects of the invention are presented hereinbelow.